The Ants and the Peanut
by FriendLey
Summary: Giving Cassie a pet ant may have been a bad idea in hindsight when she gets into an altercation in school and her parents are called in. Complete


**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any of its characters and lines from the movies used in this story. What is written here is for entertainment purposes only. I do not make any profits from it.**

"Isn't this a lovely gathering!" cooed Miss Roberts at the group she had inside her classroom. "Usually, when I call parents in, I only have one show up or none at all." She clasped her hands in earnest delight and let her eyes dart from Hope to Scott to Maggie and finally to Paxton. "Look at you four! Everybody came!"

"Well, we're _all_ Cassie's parents," said Scott, soaking in the praise.

Beside him Maggie nodded, "And when you called claiming an altercation, we all had to come."

"I know it's weird," added Paxton, "but we all decided that dividing Cassie's life among us wasn't the way to go."

"We're very involved in her upbringing and we do it all as a team," concluded Hope. "It's call Deliberate Parenting."

Miss Roberts pointed at her. "My favorite kind!" Her smile faltered a little and she looked apologetic. "Well, I'm really sorry to bring a dark turn to this rather happy beginning. I didn't want to scare you over the phone, but today, Cassie was... Well, she was violent."

Both Paxton and Scott leaned over at the same time and asked, "Violent?" "How?"

Miss Roberts pouted. "She punched a boy in Recess."

Maggie raised her hands up. "Hold on, I know my daughter. She isn't one to dole out violence unless she was provoked. She must have had a very good reason to punch this boy."

"I told her to punch them if they ever get too touchy," said Hope, her expression dark. "Did he get too touchy?"

Scott gave Miss Roberts a proud smile. "She's been teaching Cassie self defense."

"Oh, really? What kind?"

"I'm sorry, can we get back to the matter at hand, please? Our daughter _punched_ someone," reminded Paxton, gesturing at the teacher to go on.

"Yes, she did."

"Well, was he?" prompted Maggie.

The teacher stared blankly. "Was he what?"

"Touchy!"

"No, the boy wasn't 'touchy.'" Miss Roberts sighed, like she wasn't quite sure what to make of what happened. "I don't really understand what happened. The poor boy opened his lunch bag and saw that there were ants inside. So, he tried to kill them."

All four of them groaned, not needing the details to imagine exactly what happened next.

Miss Roberts continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "Well, 'kill' is such a strong word. More like he started squishing them one by one. And Cassie told him not to, but the boy insisted. When she tried to stop him, he pushed her away and she threw the first punch. Oh, don't worry! They're both fine but Cassie managed to rip the boy's clothes in the tussle."

Maggie turned to Scott. "The pet ant is beginning to be a bad idea." She turned back to the teacher and explained. "Cassie has an… ant for a pet."

"Like an ant farm?"

"Sure, let's go with that," said Scott, glancing at Hope nervously.

Paxton joined in, "she doesn't take too kindly to people killing her pet's… relatives."

"And anyway, it was entirely the boy's fault," added Scott. "What the heck was he thinking trying to kill a family of ants who were just trying to find food, make a living?"

The three other parents looked at him.

"Too much?" Scott whispered to Maggie.

Hope sighed and gave Scott a small shake of her head. To Miss Roberts she said, "We'll talk to her."

"Thank you!" Miss Roberts said, finally grateful for this matter to be over. "Oh and one more thing: Cassie's a really sweet girl. When the two of them had calmed down, she offered to sow the poor boy's clothes back up."

Scott awwed. "Really? I taught her that! I taught her how to sow." He addressed the other parents, "That was when I was on house arrest and we decided to make clothes for the ant."

"The ant?" Miss Roberts repeated, not quite understanding.

Hope shot Scott an warning look.

"I mean, her aunt. Ant…onina. Aunt Antonina was stuck at home too cause… you know, she's old. You remember Aunt Antonina right, Maggie?"

Maggie mouthed a 'what?' at him.

Scott turned to Miss Roberts who was giving him a weird look.

Scott clapped his hands. "Okay! Time to get moving. Thank you again, Miss Roberts. We'll see you again at the PTC, yeah?"

Miss Roberts nodded. "Maybe you can bring Aunt Antonina, get her out of the house. Make this merry group into a party of five?"

All four parents exchanged looks.

"Sure."

…

"Aunt Antonina?" Hank barked a laugh.

"Hope told you, didn't she?" Scott gave Hope a disappointed shake of his head. "How could you betray me like this?"

Hope grinned while her father went on laughing. "He needed a laugh and you have to admit that that was pretty lame."

"I was performing under pressure!" Scott reasoned, "Well, you're going to have to dress up as Aunt Antonina on the next PTC, Hank, cause I said she was coming."

Hank's brows knitted together and he was about to retort when Janet walked in with Cassie in tow.

"Honey, be nice."

Hank gaped while Scott wiggled his eyebrows triumphantly.

"Hi, daddy," Cassie greeted a little sullenly, "Hi, Hope."

Hope waved while Scott gave her a soft smile. "Hi, peanut."

"Am I in trouble?" Cassie asked, her lower lip jutting out, a last minute attempt to save herself from the incoming punishment.

Hope took over and said, "Oh, honey, we talked to your mom and Paxton. We all agreed that your intentions were good but you just need to control your hands a little bit. So, no self-defense classes for a week."

Cassie's shoulders sagged. "What? But I love self-defense classes with you!"

"And no ANTony Stark either," added Scott.

"But why? He did nothing wrong!" The ant was a perfect gentleman in Cassie's eyes. "It was James and his naughty little fingers!"

Scott bent to her level and rubbed her back. "He's going to be staying with Hank and Janet for a while. Let him reunite with his family, yeah?"

"Fine," Cassie murmured, head bowed in surrender.

"Come on, peanut," Scott nudged Cassie's chin up. "Think of it this way, we can spend all your free time sowing Hank some girl clothes cause he's going on an undercover mission."

That served to effectively brighten her up.

Hopeful eyes turned to the scientist. "Really, Hank?"

Hank wanted to say no, but Cassie was already feeling down, he couldn't disappoint her too.

He nodded.

 **A/N: based on a true story. My 6 year old niece punched a boy for trying to kill a spider. She ripped his clothes in the tussle and she offered to sow it back together.**


End file.
